


Spring and Winter

by im_the_king_of_the_ocean



Series: Scenes of the Winter Maiden [4]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Mentor/Protégé, Other, also something i kinda want to explore more, and can call upon past incarnations for guidance, based on a post i saw on tumblr, headcanon that maidens are like the avatar in atla
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:14:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24789817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_the_king_of_the_ocean/pseuds/im_the_king_of_the_ocean
Summary: Raven begrudgingly agrees to mentor Penny in how to use her maiden powers.  It doesn't go as she expects it to.
Series: Scenes of the Winter Maiden [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624462
Kudos: 13





	Spring and Winter

Wind howls.Magic flares.Crystalline specks of snow swirl into clusters, and then form into ice shards.The wind is ordered to thrust them.It obeys.Blinding light— _flame—_ surges from a set of outstretched hands.The ice shards melt midair.Water droplets fall to the snow-covered ground.Steam hisses.

A bead of sweat runs down Raven’s forehead.She wipes it off, never taking her gaze off her opponent. _How the hell_ , she thinks, _is the brat this good at it already_?Even Raven wasn’t this good when she first gained her maiden powers.It took hours of focus, concentration, honing her skills, to even begin to controlling the Spring Maiden’s magic, which seemed to fight her every step of the way.Raven assumed, when she first agreed to do this “mentoring” thing, that it would be the same for Penny.Yet, the mechanical girl is prancing around like all this is _easy._

Penny cocks her head, a curious expression plainly painted across her face.It irks Raven to no end that she doesn’t seem to ever make the _slightest_ attempt to hide her emotions like any sane person would.Penny is so full of endless positivity, it’s grating.Of all the possible candidates to become a maiden, Raven would have preferred literally anyone else, _including_ Summer’s daughter, whose very appearance makes her stomach twist uncomfortably with something close to regret, to teach.

“Do you need to take a break?Fria tells me using the powers this much can be draining,” Penny calls over to her.

“No,” Raven snaps.“Who’s this ‘Fria’?”And why wasn’t she enlisted into this job instead of Raven?

Penny clasps her hands together in front of her.“My predecessor as the Winter Maiden,” she says sadly.“She’s still with me.”Penny places her hand over where her heart would be.“Sort of.”She makes eye contact with Raven.“I can feel her, as a guiding presence, in the back of my mind.”Penny stops to think.Her face scrunches up with concentration.“It’s hard to explain,” she sighs.“Doesn’t your predecessor guide you too?”

Old, familiar guilt escapes its locked cage and races over Raven before she can shut it down.She shoves the emotions away.She did what had to be done. _She did what had to be done_!There was no other option.The girl was too young, too sweet, too _trusting_.Their cruel world would have eaten her up and spit out her remains sooner rather than later.What Raven did had been a _mercy_.

Her mind is silent and, for the first time, Raven wonders if that’s purposeful.Intentional.If the former Winter Maiden has stuck around in some way to guide Penny, then…

The idea of _sharing_ her mind with someone else makes Raven’s fists clench.Her nails dig into her palms.No.Absolutely not.Never.Especially not with _her_.

The girl had believed Raven when she said it was just another training day.She’d never seen the betrayal coming.Not before it was too late.She should have known better.

“That doesn’t matter,” Raven finally replies.“Get into position.We’re going again.”

She calls upon her magic, pointedly ignoring how, for a second, it resists her commands.The delay doesn’t matter.Raven is powerful.More powerful than most.

But not the one she’s fighting.And she never will be.Not so long as she has silence as her only guide.


End file.
